Over the weekend, Saudi King Salman shocked the world by abruptly announcing the arrests of 11 senior princes and some 38 ministers, including Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the world’s sixty-first richest man and the largest shareholder in Citi, News Corp. and Twitter. The purge was orchestrated by a new “supreme committee” to investigate public corruption created by King Salman but under the control of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who chairs the committee and is widely...
Read More »Is This The Best Way To Bet On The Fed Losing Control Of The Bond Market?
Lately, one of my biggest duds of a call has been for the yield curve to steepen. Sure, I have all sorts of fancy reasons why it should steepen, but reality glares back at me in black and white on my P&L run. Sometimes fighting with the market is an exercise in futility. Now I know many of your eyes glaze over when I start talking about different parts of the yield curve flattening or steepening, but I urge you to...
Read More »Dollar Surge Continues Ahead Of Jobs Report; Europe Dips As Catalan Fears Return
World stocks eased back from record highs and fell for the first time in eight days, as jitters about Catalonia’s independence push returned while bets on higher U.S. interest rates sent the dollar to its highest since mid August; S&P 500 futures were modestly in the red – as they have been every day this week before levitating to record highs – ahead of hurricane-distorted nonfarm payrolls data (full preview here)....
Read More »Dollar & Stocks Jump; Bonds & Bullion Dump In Lowest Volatility September Ever
It has now been 318 trading days since the S&P 500 suffered a 5% drawdown – the 4th-longest streak since 1928… So everything is awesome… [embedded content] BUT…US ‘hard’ economic data has not been this weak (and seen the biggest drop) since Feb 2009… US Data Surprise Index, 2006 - 2017 - Click to enlarge Q3 Was a Roller-Coaster… Q3 was the 8th straight quarterly gain in a row for The Dow – the longest streak...
Read More »BIS Finds Global Debt May Be Underreported By $14 Trillion
In its latest annual summary published at the end of June, the IIF found that total nominal global debt had risen to a new all time high of $217 trillion, or 327% of global GDP... ... largely as a result of an unprecedented increase in emerging market leverage. While the continued growth in debt in zero interest rate world is hardly surprising, what was notable is that debt within the developed world appeared to have peaked, if not declined modestly in the latest 5 year period. However,...
Read More »Forget Tulips & Bitcoin – Here’s The Real Bubble
While the broader market for Swiss stocks has risen modestly this year, one ‘entity’ has outperformed its peers by such a staggering margin, it has left bamboozled market experts struggling for an explanation. And that company is…the Swiss National Bank. The price of a share in Swiss National Bank in August rose above 3,000 francs ($3,143) for the first time, more than double the level of a year ago, and up 50% since...
Read More »Forget Tulips & Bitcoin – Here’s The Real Bubble
While the broader market for Swiss stocks has risen modestly this year, one 'entity' has outperformed its peers by such a staggering margin, it has left bamboozled market experts struggling for an explanation. And that company is…the Swiss National Bank. The price of a share in Swiss National Bank in August rose above 3,000 francs ($3,143) for the first time, more than double the level of a year ago, and up 50% since mid-July, as the Financial Times noted in a story about its...
Read More »Six Banks Join UBS’s “Utility Coin” Blockchain Project
Here’s a piece of news that the remaining human members of Wall Street’s FX sales and trading desks probably don’t want to hear. According to the Financial Times, six of the world’s largest banks have decided to join a blockchain project called “utility coin” that will allow banks to settle trades in securities denominated in different currencies without a money transfer. What’s worse, the banks expect to begin...
Read More »Talking Global Macro Investing With A 25-Year Market Veteran
- Click to enlarge By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at If you were rich, successful, and intelligent – which often, not always, go hand in hand together – where would you live? The last time I was in the Rockies, I remember thinking to myself. You know what, if it weren’t for the fact it’s so damn far from the beach I could actually live here. It’s really quite lovely....
Read More »Talking Global Macro Investing With A 25-Year Market Veteran
By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at If you were rich, successful, and intelligent - which often, not always, go hand in hand together - where would you live? The last time I was in the Rockies, I remember thinking to myself. You know what, if it weren't for the fact it's so damn far from the beach I could actually live here. It's really quite lovely. Bite-your-hand-to-stop-you-from-crying-out-loud-lovely and if, like me, you're a sucker for snowboarding, then it's pretty hard to be...
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